Language Attitudes Towards Singapore Mandarin and Putonghua : a Comparison Between Singaporean Chinese and Chinese Nationals
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This document is downloaded from DR‑NTU (https://dr.ntu.edu.sg) Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Language attitudes towards Singapore mandarin and putonghua : a comparison between Singaporean chinese and Chinese nationals Ho, Yen Yee. 2012 Ho, Y. Y. (2012). Language attitudes towards Singapore mandarin and putonghua : a comparison between Singaporean chinese and Chinese nationals. Final year project report, Nanyang Technological University. https://hdl.handle.net/10356/95599 Nanyang Technological University Downloaded on 04 Oct 2021 11:41:09 SGT ATTENTION: The Singapore Copyright Act applies to the use of this document. Nanyang Technological University Library NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES Language Attitudes towards Singapore Mandarin and Putonghua: a comparison between Singaporean Chinese and Chinese nationals Name: Ho Yen Yee (U0931015L) Supervisor: Francesco Cavallaro A Final Year Project submitted to the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, in partial fufillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor in Arts in Linguistics and Multilingual Studies Year of Publication: 2012 ATTENTION: The Singapore Copyright Act applies to the use of this document. Nanyang Technological University Library Declaration of Authorship I declare that this assignment is my own original work, unless otherwise referenced, as defined by the NTU policy on plagiarism. I have read the NTU Honour Code and Pledge. No part of this Final Year Project has been or is being concurrently submitted for any other qualification at any other university. I certify that the data collected for this project is authentic. I fully understand that falsification of data will result in the failure of the project and/or failure of the course. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Name Signature Date ATTENTION: The Singapore Copyright Act applies to the use of this document. Nanyang Technological University Library Additional information • My FYP is an extension of my URECA project. Yes/No If yes, give details: ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ • My FYP is part of my supervisor’s project. Yes/No If yes, give details: ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ • My FYP is partially supported by my supervisor’s grant. Yes/No ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ • Provide details of funding expenditure, (e.g. payment of informant $10/hr funded by supervisor’s grant…) ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ATTENTION: The Singapore Copyright Act applies to the use of this document. Nanyang Technological University Library Acknowledgements I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to my FYP supervisor, Associate Professor Francesco Cavallaro, for providing me with useful advice and guidance on my project for the past few months, as well as being ever so understanding and encouraging. Also, I would like to thank all my friends and family who had taken the time and effort to take part in this study and contact suitable candidates they know of for the study. Their encouragement and support also made the tough journey seem more bearable. Last but not least, I would like to thank the Project Officer of the Division of Linguistics and Multilingual Studies, Teh Hui Chian, for her kind guidance and clarification on the running of some of the statistical tests used in this study. Her clear explanations made it possible for me to not just run the tests independently, but to also develop a meaningful understanding of the various processes involved in relation to my study. i ATTENTION: The Singapore Copyright Act applies to the use of this document. Nanyang Technological University Library Table of Contents 1 Introduction: Globalisation of the Chinese language…………..……………………...1 2 The Chinese Community in Singapore…………..……………………………...……...2 3 A comparison between Singapore Mandarin and Putonghua………………………...3 3.1 Mandarin or “Huayu” in Singapore…………………….……………………...3 3.1.1 Background…………………….………………………………………...3 3.1.2 Emergence of Singapore Mandarin as a unique language variety........4 3.1.3 Mandarin in Singapore today…………………………………………...5 3.2 Putonghua in Mainland China…………………….………..…...……………...6 3.3 Linguistic differences between Singapore Mandarin and Putonghua………..6 3.3.1 Pronunciation…………………………………………………………….6 3.3.2 Lexical variation………………………………………………………….7 3.3.3 Grammatical variation……………………………...…………………...7 4 Introduction to Language Attitude Studies.………..……….………………………… 8 4.1 Definition of language attitudes and factors influencing it…...……………….8 4.2 Methods used in studying language attitudes.………..……….…………….….8 4.3 Significance of studying language attitudes.………..……….………………...10 5 Language attitude studies on Singapore Mandarin and Putonghua……….……….10 6 Research Questions and Hypotheses…….………………………………………….....11 7 Methodology……………………………………………………...……………………..15 7.1 Participants……………………………...………………………………………16 7.2 Test Instruments………………………………………………………………..16 7.2.1 Stimulus speech samples…....…………..……………………………...16 7.2.2 Questionnaire……………………………......……………………….....19 7.3 Data collection methods………..……………………….………………………20 7.4 Data analysis……........………………………………………………………….20 ii ATTENTION: The Singapore Copyright Act applies to the use of this document. Nanyang Technological University Library 8 Results……………………………………………..……………………………...……..23 8.1 Language attitudes of Singaporean Chinese towards Singapore Mandarin and Putonghua……………………………………………………………….....23 8.2 Language attitudes of Chinese nationals towards Singapore Mandarin and Putonghua……………………………………………………………………….25 8.3 Comparison of Singaporean Chinese’s and Chinese nationals’ attitudes towards Singapore Mandarin and Putonghua………………….………….....27 8.3.1 Language attitudes of Singaporean Chinese and Chinese nationals towards SSM.……………………………………………………..…….28 8.3.2 Language attitudes of Singaporean Chinese and Chinese nationals towards SCM.…………………………….………………….……...…..29 8.3.3 Language attitudes of Singaporean Chinese and Chinese nationals towards PTH.…………………………………..…………….…………29 8.4 Gender effects…………………………………………………..……………….30 8.4.1 Gender of participants………………………………………………….31 8.4.2 Gender of speakers……………………………………………………..31 8.4.3 Interactional effect between gender of speakers and gender of participants…………………………………………………………..….33 8.5 Possible reasons for these attitudes towards Singapore Mandarin and Putonghua………………………………………………………………...……..34 9 Discussion…………………………………………………………………………...…..39 9.1 Mandarin as a solidarity language…………………………………………….39 9.2 Singaporean Chinese’s language attitudes towards SSM, SCM and PTH….41 9.3 Chinese nationals’ language attitues towards SSM, SCM and PTH………..42 9.4 Limitations of current study and suggestions for future studies………….....43 10 Conclusion………………………………………...…………………….………………45 References……………………………………………………………………………….………46 Appendices……………………………………………………………………...……………….52 Appendix A: Transcript of recordings……...…………...……………………….……52 Appendix B: Questionnaire……………………………………………………….……55 iii ATTENTION: The Singapore Copyright Act applies to the use of this document. Nanyang Technological University Library List of Tables Table 1. Predominant household language of Singaporean Chinese………..………….4 Table 2. Summary of participants………………………………………………...……..16 Table 3. Speakers’ Profiles………..……………………………………………………...16 Table 4. Summary of recordings………………………………………………………...18 Table 5. Varimax rotation of the two factors – Iteration 1…….………………..……..21 Table 6. Varimax rotation of the two factors – Iteration 2…….………………………22 Table 7. Group statistics and t-tests results (SSM vs SCM) – for Singaporean Chinese……………………………………………………………………..……24 Table 8. Group statistics and t-tests results (SSM vs PTH) – for Singaporean Chinese…..……………………………………………………………..…..……25 Table 9. Group statistics and t-tests results (SSM vs SCM) – for Chinese nationals…..……………………………………………………………………..26 Table 10. Group statistics and t-tests results (SSM vs PTH) – for Chinese nationals…..…………………………………………………………………..…27 iv ATTENTION: The Singapore Copyright Act applies to the use of this document. Nanyang Technological University Library List of Figures Figure 1. The Polysystem of World Chineses……………………………………………..1 Figure 2. Mean ratings of SSM, SCM and PTH by trait (Singaporean Chinese)...…...23 Figure 3. Mean ratings of SSM, SCM and PTH by trait (Chinese nationals)……...….25 Figure 4. Mean ratings of Singapore Mandarin by Singaporean Chinese and Chinese nationals……………………………………………………….……………...…27 Figure 5. Mean ratings of SSM by Singaporean Chinese and Chinese nationals......…28 Figure 6. Mean ratings of SCM by Singaporean Chinese and Chinese nationals...…...29 Figure 7. Mean ratings of PTH by Singaporean Chinese and Chinese nationals...…...30 Figure 8. Mean ratings of SSM, SCM, and PTH by gender of speaker (Singaporean Chinese)……………………………………………………..………...…………32 Figure 9. Mean ratings of SSM, SCM, and PTH by gender of speaker (Chinese